Gaynor says PlayStation 4 has easier, better terms for indies


Steve Gaynor, Co-Founder of The Fullbright Company who developed ‘Gone Home’ believes that the parity clause of Xbox One gives PlayStation 4 an advantage of offering better terms for indie developers who are in a dilemma of which console to support.

ID@Xbox has a parity clause which means some developers can’t bring their game on Xbox One if it is already released on PlayStation console. Also the clause requires them to launch on Xbox at the same time as other platforms.

In response to how difficult this would be for an indie developer, Gaynor in an interview with Nowgamer said, “”Oh yeah, that would be pretty crazy! Especially if it’s a game like ours that is a full 3D game and you’re going to run into obscure rendering bugs and all this kind of stuff. It would be a huge undertaking.”

The consequence of this situation makes PlayStation 4 a better choice according to Gaynor.

Gaynor said, “If you’re talking to Sony and Microsoft, and Microsoft is like, ‘well you can’t be on Xbox if you’re on PlayStation first’, but it’s easier to be on PS4 because they have better terms, then you’ll be like, ‘okay lets just be on PlayStation’. “

Nevertheless, Gaynor also pointed out that there many other options and no single developer needs to follow one way.

“There are tons of different options and if you can wrangle it where the thing that makes sense for you is to launch simultaneously on PS4, Xbox One, Wii U and PS Vita – that sounds kind of crazy to me, but some people do it.”

Gaynor added, “The great thing is that in this day and age, there’s no one path that you have to take, which I think is a good thing for everybody.”

‘Gone Home’ by The Fullbright Company got released in 2013 has received critical acclaim and stands proud as one of the nominees in DICE Awards and GDC awards.

For more upcoming, exciting news on PlayStation 4, stay tuned to PSGang.